Where are Malaysia's talented students?

Malaysia is facing a shortage of talents in the field related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in striving to achieve developed nation status by 2020.

Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Madius Tangau said that as of last year, Malaysia will only produce about 20 percent of skilled workers, far from its target of 50 percent for 2020.

Accordingly, Madius urged parents and communities to be aware of the need for their children to master STEM, which certainly provides a lot of jobs.

"STEM-related careers shows an increase of 12 per cent in terms of monthly household income to RM6,141 in 2014 from RM4,025 in 2009.

"Now Malaysia has 30 million citizens and I believe there are certainly a lot of 'Steve Jobs' among them. It is time for us to innovate and take advantage of STEM industries," he said.

Madius said that since 1967, Malaysia has set a target to achieve a ratio of 60:40 between science and non-science graduates, with 270,000 students majoring in science and technology in higher education by 2020.

"We need to monitor how students are not interested in STEM related career hunt. Only four years away, but we still maintain that goal. We need to change the mindset of wanting to be a job seeker to become job creators," he said.

Asked whether the government felt the panic following the reduction in the amount of talent in the STEM fields, Madius said it was the responsibility of all Malaysians, not the government, to address the situation.

He said the government has taken several initiatives, including the adoption of inquiry-based learning (IBL) (as practiced in Singapore).

"We introduced this system in some low-performing schools, and the results are good, with some of the schools that perform better from a prestigious school," he said.